‘Legally Blonde’ Prequel 'Elle' Fails To Impress Despite Promising Premise
The show feels like a forced grab with nothing fresh to add to the plot because it doesn't develop its characters beyond its lead.
Updated July 2 2026, 5:18 a.m. ET
Legally Blonde remains one of the quintessential comedies of the early 2000s, the kind of film fans still ask Hollywood to make more of. In an industry now built on sequels, prequels and spin-offs, Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and creator Laura Kittrell decided Elle Woods’ teenage years were the way to keep the franchise going.
Legally Blonde was never really a stand-alone story; a franchise has surrounded it for years, largely overlooked in favor of the original film. Elle, Amazon’s new prequel series, is the latest attempt to expand that world, and in this critic’s view, it falls short like the attempts before it. Still, it’s worth noting how Barbie-coded the whole affair is, which may give it a cultural edge despite its shortcomings.
A Muted Take on a Colorful Character
Elle runs into an issue common across streaming television: a lack of visual vibrancy. Color, especially pink, is central to the Elle Woods brand, and even accounting for how TV screens can flatten color compared to film, the palette here feels muted for a story built around Elle's world.
The show's structure has similar problems. As streaming continues to lean hard into teen dramas and high school romance, Elle leans into nearly every familiar trope in the genre. Legally Blonde got away with using recognizable tropes to its advantage; Elle, by contrast, leans on them so heavily that the story becomes predictable. A handful of strong comic performances keep it watchable, even if the show is easy to forget once it ends.
Critics have been similarly divided: the series holds a 55% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 22 reviews at the time of publishing, and a 49 out of 100 on Metacritic, both indicating a mixed reception.
Season 2 Is Already Coming
Despite that mixed response, Elle won’t need to prove itself to survive as Prime Video renewed the series for a second season back in January 2026, months before Season 1 even premiered on July 1. That means the pickup wasn't a reaction to viewership or reviews; it was a bet on the franchise's built-in audience.
Production on Season 2 began roughly two months after the renewal, in spring 2026, and filming has since wrapped, so the gap between seasons should be relatively short.
Because the second season is already in the can, there's limited room left for the criticism aimed at Season 1 to reshape what's coming next. Any adjustments prompted by reviews would likely have to wait for a potential Season 3, if the show gets that far. No premiere date for Season 2 has been announced yet.